Mapp Report: Looking Forward To The Future

Parliament resumed for the year on Tuesday this
week. After eight years, the government still seems unable
to improve the problems in the areas of real importance to
New Zealanders. The Prime Minister’s statement had no
ideas that would stem the flow of 77,000 (2007) New
Zealanders to Australia.

MPs have an extended debate
on the Prime Minister’s Statement.

I gave my
speech in response to the Prime Minister’s Statement on
Tuesday afternoon, 12 February, and an edited version
follows:

Lost opportunitiesThere is only one
source of this country’s problems, and it is that
Government. There has been eight years of lost
opportunities. I have to remind members across there, those
Ministers sitting in those seats, that they have squandered
the best years of prosperity that this country has known in
a generation. They have sold our country short.

That is why I stand in support of John Key’s motion,
which simply states that we have no confidence in the
Clark-led government because it has failed to make the
improvements in the areas of real importance to New Zealand,
and because it lacks ambition, because it is tired and
bereft of ideas, and – members should get this final point
– because it simply has lost touch with New Zealanders.
And the previous speech tellingly shows that very point.

I would ask any one of the Government members whether he
or she can answer any one of these questions. Why does New
Zealand now have the second-highest interest rates in the
OECD? They are up from four percent eight years ago to over
eight percent today and they are climbing towards 10
percent. Why have 77,000 New Zealanders left our shores for
a better future elsewhere? Is it because the wage gap
between New Zealand and Australia has widened dramatically?
Why have New Zealanders had to wait eight long years for a
tax cut? We know that it is only a cynical manoeuvre being
made by Labour for election purposes.

North Shore
HospitalWhy are hospital waiting lists catastrophically
long? Why is it that every single day now Dr Coleman in
Northcote and I are receiving letters, e-mails and telephone
calls from residents on the North Shore complaining about
the crisis at North Shore Hospital? It is so bad now that
the Health and Disability Commission is having to undertake
a full-scale investigation into that Hospital. Why can New
Zealanders not buy their first home at a reasonable price?
Those are the questions I would put to any one of those
members opposite.

I would ask whether, in their
numerous speeches, they have answered those questions at
all, or whether they have even attempted to address those
questions. The answer is no. The reason is that those
members cannot. They know that they have failed on each and
every one of those points. The telling point is this: real
wages, after taxes, in this country have not grown. I know
that the Government talks about there having been greater
growth in the country, but it is largely due to increased
employment, not to individuals having a real growth in their
wages after taxes. That has not occurred and New Zealanders
know the truth of that matter.

National provides
answersLabour has had eight years to fix those problems.
We know what happens when a Government has had eight years
in power. I have had the experience of being in a
Government in its eighth year, and I knew what the situation
was. I knew that we were struggling at that point, and I
see exactly the same things happening on the Labour
Government benches now. When Government members have to
hark back to Ruth Richardson’s Budget in 1991 as if that
was the cause and when they have collective amnesia about
their having been in government for eight years with no
answers, then we know that it is a government on its way
out. I remember when we used to talk about what Labour did
in 1984. It did not even convince us, so it certainly did
not convince the voters of New Zealand. I would tell the
government not to look back to 1991, but to look at its own
record. It should justify its own record and answer the
questions that my colleagues and I have been asking. It is
not just an issue of rhetorical debate in this Chamber; the
country wants answers to those questions. National will
provide those answers.

National’s planFor
those members who say that National does not have any
policy, let us just go through the discussion documents we
have produced, which are typically 30 to 50 pages long, on
the environment, health, local government, foreign affairs,
and aged care. Those are the substantive works we have
done. As well, we have had speeches on youth crime,
sentencing, and policing. That is our platform of policy.
I know that my colleagues will be producing more documents,
more speeches and more comprehensive policy on housing, on
infrastructure, on broadband, and, ultimately of course on
taxes.

I will talk about two issues and portfolio
interests that directly affect me or, more importantly, the
city of Auckland. Labour’s answer to the issue has been
to set up another committee. It will be three worthy
people, I admit, who will be appointed to a committee to
give an answer. It has taken eight years, of course, for
government members to suddenly realise that there is an
infrastructure problem, a roading deficit, in Auckland.
After eight years those members have decided that the
solution to that issue is to deal with it by way of
committee.

National’s plan for
AucklandNational will have a comprehensive plan to lift
Auckland, and we will deal with the critical issues. We
will act. We will deal with the issues of governance. We
will deal with the issues of transport, including public
transport. We will deal with the international connectivity
issues around broadband, connecting our most vital
businesses and communities to the globe with fast broadband,
not the slow track that Labour would have us on. In truth,
that plan will produce action because it will be about
action, not talk, and that is the difference. We listened
to that speech today and I was just incredibly struck that
this is as good as it gets. The only thing government
members can produce after eight years in government is a
whole lot of footling little plans that do not amount to a
hill of beans.

DefenceAnother area of great
interest to me, and which I have been interested in for
many, many years, is that of defence. Labour was elected in
1999 on a promise to transform our Defence Force – more
depth, less breadth. As a principle, that has some logic
and coherence to it. I understand that. I was on the
select committee that produced the report Inquiry into
Defence Beyond 2000, which dealt with that very issue. So
after eight years we should be reasonably able to measure
whether that has been achieved. It is one thing for the
government to say that it did not do it in 2003, but it is
quite another thing to ask it whether it has achieved it
after eight years. But we have the figures out from the
government. These are the government’s own figures, if we
look at all the troubles in the Pacific. I thought it was
telling that the government is anxious about deploying one
extra platoon to East Timor, because Australia is able to
deploy 250 people. On a same-ratio basis, we would expect
to be able to deploy 50 or 60 people, but we are anxious
about deploying 25 people. I know that the Minister will
talk about there being all sorts of policy reasons and so
forth, but I suspect there is another reason – that is,
lack of people. These are the facts. We have two infantry
battalions. They are supposed to have three rifle companies
each, each with 120 people. In fact, both those battalions
have only two rifle companies. One of those is already
deployed into East Timor and another one is largely up in
Afghanistan. That is why the Minister is anxious about the
numbers. So we do not have the depth.

Eight years
of failureAfter eight years, Labour’s own prescription
has failed. In that one little instance is a microcosm of
Labour’s fundamental failure. It is all rhetoric, no
action and no dealing with the real issues. The truth is
this. New Zealanders know that this government has failed.
They know it is time for a change. They want action, not
talk, and they will get that at the election later this
year. 15 February 2008

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